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Sunday, 14 June 2015

Aspirin `delays memory loss in elderly`

Daily low dose aspirin could slow the decline in brain
power among elderly women at high risk of heart disease, a new study has
suggested.

The researchers based their findings on 681 women between
the ages of 70 and 92, 601 of whom were at high risk of heart disease and
stroke, defined as a 10 percent or greater risk on a validated risk scale.

All the women were subjected to a battery of tests to
measure their physical health and intellectual capacity, including verbal
fluency and memory speed, and dementia in 2000-1.

Their health was tracked over a period of five years, at
the end of which the intellectual capacity of 489 women was assessed again.

Some 129 women were taking low dose aspirin (75 to 160
mg) every day to ward off a heart attack or stroke when the monitoring period
started. A further 94 were taking various other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory
drugs (NSAIDs).

The researchers found that the MMSE score fell, on average,
across the whole group at the end of the five years, but this decline was
considerably less in the 66 women who had taken aspirin every day over the
entire period.

This result held true, even after taking account of age,
genetic factors, the use of other NSAIDs and the cardiovascular risk score.

The researchers then divided the group into those who had
taken aspirin for the entire five years (66), those who had stopped taking it
by 2005-6 (18), those who were taking it by 2005-6 (67), and those who hadn’t
taken the drug at any point (338).

Compared with women who had not taken aspirin at all,
those who had done so for all five years, increased their MMSE score, while
those who had taken aspirin at some point, registered only insignificant falls
in MMSE score.

The test results for verbal fluency and memory speed
indicated similar patterns, although the findings weren’t statistically
significant.

There were no differences, however, in the rate at which
the women developed dementia.

The researchers then looked only at the women with a
Framingham risk score of more than 10 percent.

Again, similar patterns were evident.

The fall in MMSE score was less among those taking
aspirin than those who weren’t, and there was no difference between those
taking other NSAIDs and those who weren’t.

The same was true of the verbal and memory tests,
although the differences were not statistically significant.